Both of these, to my uttler delight and social doom
Couldnt finish (or correct the spelling in my last post) but the other book was Reader’s digest Great World Atlas. Huge oversized book I would open to various pages and pour over for hours. The solar system, the rocks and minerals, the death of the sun, which distressed me for years… I must have been the oddest 8 year old nihilist being upset then resigned to the eventual death of the sun.
I also enjoyed The Liberation of Clementine Tipton (about a girl growing up in 1870’s Philadelphia) and One Hundred and Eight Bells (about a girl growing up in 1950’s Tokyo), both by Jane Flory.
I don’t know is this is too mainstream for this thread, but I liked Jane Langton’s books, The Swing in the Summerhouse and The Diamond in the Window.
I just went to look up the author’s name, and was startled to see there are six more books in the series, of which I was completely unaware!
It appears I have some catching up to do.
[COLOR=black][FONT=“Trebuchet MS”]I realize this is an old, old thread, but I just had to add some of my favorites. My apologies if these have already been mentioned.[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=black][FONT=“Trebuchet MS”]Willard Price’s adventure books series[/FONT][/COLOR]
The Boys Who Vanished - John F. Carson
The City Underground - Suzanne Martel
The Casket and the Sword - Norman Dale
Mystery of the Witches’ Bridge (aka The Witches’ Bridge) - Barbee O. Carlton
The Strange Light - Reeves
Tom’s Midnight Garden - Pearce
Follow My Leader - Garfield
The Greyhound - Helen V. Griffith
Light A Single Candle - Butler
Green Eyes - Jean Nielsen
The Horse That Had Everything - Wilde
Ride Out the Storm - Bell
Mystery Mountain - Laughlin
Trail Through Danger - Steele
The Secret Raft - Krantz
The Lion’s Paw - White
The Mystery of the Great Swamp - Zapf
Blue Ribbons for Meg - de Leuw
Berries Goodman - Neville
The Taste of Spruce Gum - Jackson
Crofton Meadows - Houston
The Gatepost Mystery - Bothwell
The Magic Drawing Pencil (aka Marianne Dreams) - Storr
Adopted Jane - Daringer
Jamie - Bennett
The Little Lame Prince - Mulock
That Certain Girl - Snow
Black Forest Summer - Allan
Tomas Takes Charge - Talbot
The Mystery of the Missing Stamps - Clark
The House of Secrets - Bawden
The Witch’s Daughter - Bawden
Chancy and the Grand Rascal - Fleischman
The Witch of Blackbird Pond - Speare
The Mystery of the Haunted Mine (aka The Haunted Treasure of the Espectros) - Shirreffs
I second ***The Mad Scientists’ Club ***and Cinnabar, the One O’Clock Fox.
Others I remember fondly from my grade school days:
Ten Beaver Road
Terry Sets Sail
Me and Caleb
Project: Genius
Andy Buckram’s Tin Men
Caboose on the Roof
Star Trek: Mission to Horatius
Combat!: The Counterattack
The last two were Whitman “young readers’” books.
I’d add the Encyclopedia Brown and ***Alvin Fernald ***books, but I don’t think they’re that obscure … or are they nowadays?
Anything by Margeurite Henry belongs on a list like this.
I’ll add When the Legends Die too, though I was a junior in high school when I read it.
I was fascinated by wildlife when I was a kid. There was a series of books by a guy named Robert M. McClung that I particularly enjoyed. They were geared toward children, and each book was a pretty comprehensive description of the biology and life cycle of one species, told in narrative form. They all had the same title format. Buzztail: The Story of a Rattlesnake, Bufo: The Story of a Toad, and Vulcan: The Story of a Bald Eagle are three that I remember. I borrowed those three many times.
My favorite book when I was a kid was The Tall Book of Make-Believe. It’s a book of unique(?) fairy tales, with some really incredible illustrations. I used to fantasize my own stories based on the illustrations, more than the stories themselves. I still have my well-worn copy after all these years.
I was introduced to a series of children’s book, entitled “The Twins Books,” by my husband who had read them as a child. These are not the Bobsey Twins books, but a collection of tales about twins, always a boy and a girl, from different countries(The Dutch Twins, The Mexican Twins, etc.) and eras(The Pioneer Twins,The American Twins of the Revolution), in each successive book the twins are a year older. First published in the early 1910’s thru the 30’s, horribly dated now, but charming and winsome. Lucy Fitch Perkins is the author, she also did the lovely illustrations. I’m missing 2 books, AFAIK, I believe there were 20 altogether.
Most of the ones I came to share have been mentioned–the Green Knowe books, the Mushroom Planet books, The Teddy Bear Habit (weird book, man, illustrated by Lorenz), Tom’s Midnight Garden… I didn’t see Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson listed, loved that book.
Mitch and Amy by Beverly Cleary is another I read again and again.
I read constantly and voraciously as a kid, checking 20 books at a time out of the library (they extended the limit for me, kindly). I wish I could remember more of them. Astonishing to see all the ones listed I hadn’t read.
I had a set of encyclopedias, and then assorted reference books like nature guides, history of the US, science books that other people gave us. I remember them rather positively overall.
But it never occurred to me how I can’t say I have beloved fiction from childhood because I’d get loads of it from the library, read read read, return, rinse, repeat. And so all forgotten.